If you could save someone's life, would you? Anyone's? Ali's older brother has a swastika tattooed on his knuckles, a prison ID number for nearly beating an immigrant to death, and spent his teenage years ruthlessly persecuting Ali for being gay. Blood may be thicker than water, but Ali has spent most of his life desperate to prove he is nothing like Tony. A committed vegetarian, charity-supporter, and blood donor, Ali would do anything for anyone. Ali may share parentage with Tony, but he’s determined not to share anything else if he can help it. So when Tony contracts leukaemia, and Ali is the only match for the urgently-needed bone marrow transplant, Ali is caught between two equally awful choices: to refuse and condemn a man to death, or to donate. And in donating, save the life of the man who nearly murdered Ali's Iraqi boyfriend?

Thicker Than Bone

“I just…the thought of—he nearly killed you,” Ali whispered. “And the thought of donating to try and save him…you know?”


Ali felt his face twist uncontrollably.


“But what kind of a person does it make me to let someone die?” he whispered.


Yazid sighed, exhaling upwards and ruffling his fringe. Ali swallowed, and clenched his hands around the bench slats to stop himself reaching out. He couldn’t, not here—but he wanted to.


“So when are you supposed to go and get tested?”


“I said I’d think about it. The consultant said to call him with a decision as soon as possible.”


“Jo did it,” Ali whispered. Of course Jo did. Jo was like their mother—she’d forgive anything, even the unforgivable. She’d even taken the stand in court after the attack, and said Tony was aggressive but he wasn’t a murderer, that he’d never intended to hurt Yazid so badly, just…


Chapter 20